Nova (34 page)

Ben was
standing
at the counter and he added, “Never bet the farm, Jack. Where’s your dignity?”

“Apparently it left with the last bit of my cash,” he replied, standing up.

“Well you’ve got to pay up, buddy,” Heath pestered with a motion of his hand. “Come on, out with it.”

I looked at Jack and shrugged. “I guess we gotta tell ‘em.” He didn’t reply at first, probably be
cause he didn’t get the hint right away
, so I moved over to him and put my arm around his waist.
He in turn put his arm over my shoulder when I announced,
“Well,
fellas
…
Jack and I are lovers.”

The kitchen was deathly silent, even
when Clara
entered the room
as she
gaped at us with wide eyes.

“I guess we couldn’t hide it for long, sweetheart,” Jack told me with seriousness. “No more late nights in the back room together…”

I almost cracked a smile at that one, but I managed to hold it in.

“…No more private massages
,” he continued. “No more…hands touching while in the middle of a biopsy…”

With that I had to snort, and at the same time, Ben told everyone how gullible they were.

“What—?”

“You mean…?”

“Why would you…?”

“You two are just downright rotten!” Clara scoffed at us. “To finally get my hopes up after all these years; to finally have proof that Jack isn’t gay!”

The room exploded with laughter, and even Jack couldn’t help but laugh. If the timing wasn’t any better (or worse, however you look at it), Austin entered the house at that very second. He just kind of witnessed the chaos for a moment, and then asked, “Did I miss a kick-ass poker game or what?”

“Jack just won your girlfriend,” Heath told him.

“Oh, yeah?” he asked, smiling at the two of us. “Does she know that he’s gay?”

Everyone burst out in laughter once again, and Jack said to everyone, “Suit
yourselves
. I take that to mean the bet has been cancelled out since I’m, you know, gay and all that.”

“Wait, what was the bet again?” Austin wanted to know. By then he’d
come across the room to kiss me
and waited for someone to answer.

“Jack’s got himself a wo
man,” Gene said. “He won’t tell us
her name.”

“You mean
Melissa
Langley?” Austin gave up.

There was an array of reactions to that one, even myself smacking Austin across the chest.

“What? He deserved that.”

Poor Jack didn’t seem to disagree, but
it was Heath that said, “Ah, yes, it’s been so long…”

“So long since what?” I had to ask.

“For Austin’s revenge,” Cal chuckled.

I looked at my boyfriend, who was still eyeing Jack with a smile. Finally Jack held up his hands and said, “Fine, fine, we’re even. But Nova, don’t listen to anything he says. I did
not
tell everyone that you and Austin were sneaking around together
last summer
.”

I gasped with feigned disbelief and everyone laughed.

Then he added, “That was Clara.”

It was her turn to gasp, and she threatened to go after him with her fist. He dodged her with a
laugh
and said, “I’m turning in folks. It’s been fun.”

“And tomorrow
Melissa
Langley is getting a phone call from me,” Clara growled as he headed up the stairs.

“And I’ll tell everyone what you really put in that stew last week,” was his reply.

All eyes were on Clara for several seconds. She shrugged and said, “I don’t know what he’s talking about.”

I took a deep breath, still smiling to myself. I loved nights like this at the ranch, where everyone
got
together to have a good time. They really were like a family—the boys acting like brothers, giving each other a hard time—but they really did have each other’s backs when it
actually
mattered.

“Well
,
beautiful?” Austin asked amidst everyone cleaning up. “Want to walk to the house with me and, uh, hang out for a bit?”

With a smile I replied, “Hang out, huh? Didn’t you miss me more than that?”

“I surely did. In fact, I have a gift for you.”

“You got me
my
t-shirt from Florida?”

He chuckled as we left the guesthouse arm in arm.

“What’s so funny? I said I wanted a t-shirt.”

“Okay, so I got you the t-shirt, but I got you something else as well.”

“Really?”

“Mmhmm. But you have to promise you’re not going to love the shirt more.”

“How can I promise that?”

He nudged me with his arm. “Do me a favor and just pretend.”

“Whatever you say, Boss.”

He led me into a quiet house where nobody seemed to be up. I knew his parents always went to bed
before
ten, but I wasn’t sure where the girls were. We entered his bedroom and he closed the door, so I took up a spot on the couch. I liked Austin’s room; it was kind of like a hotel suite with it’s own living room
and flat screen TV.

He tossed something at my face and said, “There’s your shirt.”

“Gee thanks,” I smiled, sorting the fabric so I could see it. It was light blue and on the front of it was an outline of the state of Florida. But when I read what it said I laughed and told him, “I would not wear this in public!”

He smiled and
sat down next to me.
“How come
?”

“ ‘I’m Hot, You’re Not’?”

“It’s true. And I’m offended that you don’t like my choice of souvenir t-shirt. You just said it needed to say Florida on it, and there it is,” he pointed as he sat down beside me.

It was true. In tiny let
tering at the bottom it did say
Soaking up the sun
in
Florida
.

“You’re right, baby. I
love
it.” I gave him a cheesy smile and a big kiss.

But the fact was I
did
l
ike it because it came from him
and he knew it.

“Okay, on to your other gift,” he said. He had something on the other side of him and he handed it to me.
“This is a ‘just because’ gift.”

I eyed him carefully before I took the black box out of his hand. It wasn’t a ring box, so there wasn’t a chance that I got excited about that, but I could tell it was jewelry. “You already got me jewelry for Valentine’s Day,” I reminded him.

“I know, but this goes with it.”

I carefully lifted the lid to reveal a beautiful amethyst pendant. “Wow, Austin. That is gorgeous.”

“You like it?”

“I love it.”

“I liked how the bracelet looked on you so I decided to make it a set.”

I
wrapped my arms around him and we kissed until he lounged back on the couch and pulled me over him. “Thank you so much,” I told him.
“
And if you keep getting me gifts, you’re never going to get rid of me.”

“Your birthday is in three days. You want that gift too?”

“No,” I chuckled. I studied him for a few seconds before I
asked,
“You seriously already have a birthday present for me?”

“Yeah. I’ve had it for about a week now. Actually I think you should have it.”

“No, I don’t want it yet,” I smiled, keeping him
from getting up
. “I think it’s time for you to admit that
you’re just trying to bribe me for some reason…
”

He smiled against my mouth and pressed me tighter against him. “Bribing you is never necessary,” he teased.

Chapter Eighteen

I wish life had a pause button. It was probably too much to ask to have a rewind button, so I think I’d take pause as a compromise. I guess I don’t really know what I’d do with a pause button, though. Maybe use it
to stop those “wait, what’s happening right now?” moments. I don’t suppose we’d get the chance
to
fix anything quickly before life resumed, so I guess it would just be for the sake of preparing ourselves.

March went by really fast. My winter semester was over and I was done with my transfer degree, but because I’d decided to get my tech degree instead, there were still three classes that I needed to take in order to complete that. I could still graduate in
June
, but I was stuck with another semester of schooling. Luckily one of the classes was available online, so for the other two classes I traveled south on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

For the most part Austin had been pretty busy with his new racing team. He’d been picked up as one
of the drivers to drive the No.
77
car in the
NASCAR
Nat
ionwide Series
and his life became pretty full. I was very excited for him because it was his dream, and everyone should have a shot at his or her dream.

But lately things between us seemed to be pretty strained. We were
never
at the ranch at the same time because…Austin moved to North Carolina. Yep, his team was located there, and it was the newest setback that racing decided to give me. I knew this ahead of time, which was one of the main reasons I was against
him pursuing a racing career, but I really didn’t have a say in any of it. A
ustin was happy with his choice
and I did my best to support him.

W
e still talked on the phone a lot
. I
got to hear his voice everyday
and som
etimes we’d video chat online. B
ut no matter how much I tried to convince myself of the value in that, I wasn’t happy w
ith it. I missed him more than
ever
by the end of the month
, and even though Austin had arranged for me to travel to
a couple of the
race
s
he raced
in
, it still felt really…incomplete. I enjoyed
those two
weekends with him
,
but I didn’t feel like it was good enough. It was different when
I
had traveled to his other races because it just seemed like a short little vacation
together
, and then we both had “home” to look forward to.
Now I didn’t have him home at all, and even though I treasured every moment I was with him, my heart felt a little broken.

It was also different becaus
e he wasn’t
even competing
all the time, but he was
just as busy
.
He was signed on to only
compete in
a certain number of races during the season, but that didn’t mean he did nothing in between those races. He was act
ually just as busy test driving the cars for future races or practicing his skills or strategy for his own race. When he traveled with the team he was busy morning until night, even if he wasn’t the dr
iver for that competition. I kne
w it was a new level for him and he was working hard to fit in
, so I did my best to encourage and support him as much as I could
.

Austin was back in California to race at Fontana on April 3
rd
. It was really good to have him at
the ranch for a couple of days
and I even skipped my Thursday class
es
just so I could spend time with him.

But my time with him seemed
really…
off. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but he just didn’t seem like the same relaxed, easy-going Austin that I’d always known. I even asked him a lot about racing, just to get him talking about something he enjoyed, and it didn’t seem to do any good. I could tell something was amiss, but I was too afraid to delve into it. I had good reason
,
too, because I felt that Austin’s uneasiness had to do with me, and I feared anything that could possibly jeopardize my relationship with him.

But I guess
you can only avoid the inevitable for so long.
The night before Austin left for North Carolina he insisted that we have a talk. I knew it couldn’t be good when he didn’t look happy about it. And I even tried to talk myself into something
positive
, like he was just too nervous to ask me to move to
Mooresville
with him, or even better, to marry him. But he didn’t have that kind of anxiety on h
is face—it was a different sort,
the break up sort—and I couldn’t even talk myself out of worrying because he pretty much got right to the point.